Decision makers

Stop testing on companion animals

Ridglan Farms Inc. is a biomedical company located in Wisconsin that has bred beagles specifically to be sold to labs for research laboratory testing for over forty years now. They saw they breed about eight to eleven generations of beagles for their testing. Buyers can even make other special requests such as for pregnant cats, for the animal to have its vocal cords removed, or even for skinned animals. In order to be able to do this, Ridglan Farms Inc. is registered as a USDA Class A dealer so that they can legally breed beagles for laboratory use. Research laboratories can also get animals from Class B dealers. Research labs can buy cat and dog cadavers from shelters for two to three dollars each and sell them to a university for about $95 per pet. Many research labs are now being sold animals brought to them from Mexico because people can make a larger profit by getting them there because they are even cheaper to buy from the shelters there. The USDA inspectors have found numerous AWA violations that resulted from insufficient veterinary care and a lack of monitoring their daily health which included: finding a dead puppy stored in a refrigerator that was used to store medications; there were also numerous dogs with very obvious injuries and medical problems, some of which had blood on them or in or around their cages; including a partially conscious puppy that had just been born who was shaking and dehydrated. He was so sick that they had to euthanize the puppy. The report shows that they found the lab kept many dogs in cages in the dark; in damaged and filthy cages where they had lots of urine and feces in their cages; dogs were being kept together in cages regardless of temperament or safety; and they even found dead and rotting mice in several of the laboratory’s buildings. They even had reports of them killing and dissecting dogs in front of the caged dogs which as you can imagine, causes them tons of stress. Upon inspection of some research labs, inspectors have reported finding massive fly infestations and dogs with major injuries or dead in their cages, often times with blood all over the animal and or the cage. Many Class A biomedical research companies that breed dogs have been cited for animal welfare violations repeatedly for inhumane treatment of the live dogs and that they continue to obtain dogs from unlicensed random sources. Occasionally, the research laboratories will find out they have someone’s pet dog that was lost that came from a shelter or unknown source and they will have to return it and their money for it will be refunded to them. It is sad to think that if your pet went missing that it could very well end up being tortured by having all kinds of tests done on it until the owner came to get it and many times, I am sure no one comes for these dogs. Dogs should not have to live in cages and be subjected to this kind of abuse and companion animals do not belong in lab research. While animal rights activists continue to protest and to try to stop research labs from using beagles it seems like they are fighting a losing battle. In fact, studies show that over 60% of colleges and universities surveyed admit they use companion animals for dissection at their schools. That means an astonishing number of cats and dogs are being used in research labs at major universities right here in the U.S. Not to mention, approximately 15,000 cats and 15,000 dogs are also being taken from the U.S. and sold to Canadian research laboratories each year meaning that there are an enormous number of animals being tortured, abused, and killed in laboratories all the time. This inhumane treatment of our companion animals needs to end. No animal should have to live its entire life in a cage, especially a dog. We need to stop research labs from testing on beagles, which means we all need to sign every petition we see and we need to write lawmakers about this in order to try to stop this. Please sign this petition to stop research testing on companion animals and the breeding of dogs for use in research labs. We need to start fighting to save man’s best friend.